Muhammed Muheisen / AP

A Pakistani youth pushes his motorcycle, with balloons that he hopes to sell on Valentine's Day, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013. Romance may not be dead in Pakistan but it is under attack. Conservatives in Pakistan are attacking the romantic holiday as a western-inspired event helping to spread vulgarity in their country and putting up posters calling on people to boycott the holiday.

Some Pakistanis celebrated Valentine's Day on Wednesday with balloons and flowers, but others denounced the holiday as an insult to Islam.

In the port city of Karachi, home to 18 million people, billboards decorated with a black heart urged citizens to "SAY NO TO VALENTINE'S DAY."

"This tradition reflects insensitivity, indignity and ignorance of Islam," the signs read. They were put up by a group affiliated with Jamaat-e-Islami, a religious political party that holds six of 342 legislative seats.

Secular parties dominate Pakistani politics and are likely to win the vast majority of votes in elections due this year, but religious parties often wield political influence through street demonstrations.

"Valentine's is against Islamic culture. In our view, relationships are sacred. We have arranged marriages in this culture and people don't get married for love," said Syed Askari, a spokesman for Jamaat-e-Islami. "This is imposing Western values and cultures on an Islamic society.

"Look at the West - people love their dogs but throw their parents out when they get old. We don't want to be like that."

In the northwestern city of Peshawar, a handful of people burned Valentine's Day cards in front of television cameras on Monday. Women wearing black robes held signs denouncing the tradition.

The state broadcasting regulator, PEMRA, urged broadcasters to "respect viewers' sentiments."

"PEMRA has been receiving complaints from a large segment of society that Valentine's Day celebrations are not in conformity with our religious and cultural ethos and has, therefore, condemned its unequivocal propagation through media," the statement said.

But in the capital of Islamabad, hawkers selling heart-shaped balloons staked out street corners and florists were doing a brisk trade.

Slideshow: Valentine’s Day around the world

Lintao Zhang / Getty Images

From San Francisco to Sri Lanka, China to Cuba, love and romance know no boundaries. See the many ways Cupid's favorite holiday is celebrated across the globe.

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"Valentine's Day is good for business," said a grinning Mohammed Ajmar as he handed a customer a huge heart made of red roses and glitter.

"I'm happy with Valentine's Day. The city if full of flowers and it looks nice," said 21-year-old student Faateh Khan, who was buying roses for his mother. "Those people are just a minority of extremists acting up for the media," he said of those making complaints.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Suliman and Farzana Sharifi’s marriage is very unusual in Afghanistan. 

The 23-year-olds have a love match in a country where most weddings are arranged. That fact makes Valentine’s Day, a holiday banned by the Taliban but embraced by many of the country’s urban youth, extra-special for the two.

Both work hard to surprise each other on Valentine's Day, which they've celebrated for the three years they've been together. 

“I don’t let him know, he doesn’t let me know," said Farzana, a university student who heads up an Islamic NGO that runs orphanages throughout the country. "Like a month before Valentine’s day we act that we don’t know it is Valentine’s Day. So, we normally surprise each other.”

This isn’t just a game – the couple believe that love is simply more powerful than hate, and it could be a weapon in ending the insurgency. 

“When love comes even the Taliban can’t stop anybody,” Farzana adds.

But can love really stop Taliban fighters in other parts of the war-torn country?

An American charity put money on it. Getting married in Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries, is very expensive. Women’s families can demand dowries of up to $10,000 from prospective husbands, Qasimi said. With the average Afghan earning less than $500 a year, these demands make marriage and family unachievable for many.

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Aref Karimi / AFP - Getty Images

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

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With the help of local NGOs, Texas-based Comfort Aid International helped organize a mass wedding of 38 couples last year.

“We did this to prevent our youth from joining the Taliban side. They often join the Taliban because they are single and poor,” local organizer Sayeed Saleh Qasimi said.

That’s were Comfort Aid steps in – it has helped arrange the weddings for more than 1,000 couples already. Local organizations it works with have negotiated with local families to agree to more reasonable dowry prices. 

One young husband, Sayeed Hussaini, says he simply wouldn’t have been able to get married without the charity’s help. 

“Everyone wants things in life, like getting married,” the unemployed construction worker said. “But a lot of people are doing bad things for money like joining the Taliban.”

He added: “I am jobless but I will not join them.”

Hussaini's new wife Fatima is the reason he won’t risk his life. 

She says she’s grateful for the charity’s help in easing their financial woes, which allowed the couple to marry.

So perhaps Farzana is right to hope that love can conquer war.

“I think love can change anything,” she said, turning to her husband Suliman. “Yeah, yeah it changed you, it changed me.”

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This story was originally published on Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:25 AM EST